I asked the CLNC® Pros to recommend some of their favorite websites (beyond the obvious medical and nursing association websites) they use for researching legal nurse consultant jobs. These recommended websites will prove valuable to all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants handling a variety of medical-related cases.

They also recommended a very specific medical search engine, one that cuts out consumer-related results. I’m sure you’ll find this to be a welcome addition to your research toolkit.

Here are the 9 medical research websites recommended by the CLNC Pros:

Amazon Prime® – Technically not a research website, but having an Amazon Prime membership allows you to rent and borrow textbooks. If you do a lot of online shopping, upgrade to combine this with the countless other Amazon resources and you’ve got a pretty sweet package that’s well worth the cost.

Essential Evidence Plus – An evidence-based medicine website primarily designed for point-of-care clinical decision support. Included in its resources are abstracts from the Cochrane Systematic Reviews, evidence-based medicine guidelines (EBMG) and summaries as well as select guidelines from the National Guidelines Clearinghouse. It does have an annual subscription fee. One CLNC Mentor loves this site just for its illustrations which she commonly adds to her reports for legal nurse consultant jobs.

Google Scholar – A free resource that allows you to search for peer-reviewed articles, theses, books and abstracts. It’s not as inclusive as a database but serves as a good, free starting point.

McGraw-Hill Medical – Access to more than 180 of McGraw-Hill’s medical textbooks broken down by clinical specialty. You have full-text access, can obtain FOB (front of book) material, automatically generate citations and download images. You may subscribe to an annual, unlimited subscription to any of the McGraw-Hill Medical clinical specialties or simply purchase unlimited access for either a 24- or 48-hour period all at varying costs dependent upon the number of resources available in each clinical specialty. If you’ve identified a particular McGraw-Hill textbook and need to quickly gain access to the content this is a terrific resource.

Medical Dictionary – Drawing from such reputable and authoritative sources as the American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, Mosby’s Dental Dictionary, Mosby’s Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary, this is a valuable website for defining terms in your reports that attorney-clients may not understand. I find this to be one of the best free resources on the web.

MedlinePlus – A consumer-focused National Library of Medicine (NLM) website designed for patients and families drawing from NIH and a variety of other sources. Using this database will require careful investigation of the result links to separate authoritative (NLM/NIH) from informative (MayoClinic.org) sources. This site is best used for breaking down simple topics into layman’s terms.

Public Library of Science (PLOS) – Open-access, peer-reviewed journal articles at no cost. Articles are relevant to clinicians, policymakers and researchers and is searchable by diagnosis or author.

Wiley Online Library* – Access to Wiley’s full line of medical, nursing and other textbooks broken down by clinical specialty. You download PDFs of specific sections, chapters or the entire textbook or journal. You may purchase the text outright or individual chapters on a 24-hour access basis. Costs will vary based on the particular textbook or journal. If you’ve identified a particular Wiley textbook or journal and need to quickly gain access to the content this is a terrific resource. * Full disclosure: Wiley published my New York Times bestseller “Wicked Success is Inside Every Woman”, but this is not an endorsement or paid placement. It’s simply an aid for researching your legal nurse consultant jobs.

Here’s one of the best resources of all – a medical search engine:

Pogofrog – A custom designed medical search engine that eliminates consumer-driven results, such as general health information and attorney websites. Instead, it focuses strictly on results from credible medical-related sites. Sources for results include government websites (NLM/NIH), medical association websites, peer-reviewed journals (NEJM) and other sites suggested by the Pogofrog user community. This site is heavily advertisement driven, but once you get past the ads, you’ll find this to be a very useful site for authoritative research and sources.

These are just a few of the websites that will help with your research in your legal nurse consulting jobs.